For all of those who received the Bulls Mobile Alert saying that the Bulls defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in 102 to 93 in overtime, but didn’t watch the game, that message was not a joke! The Bulls rallied together to get the win against the NBA’s best team.

With the game tied at 87, Lebron James bricked a midrange jumpshot over Luol Deng to send the game into overtime.

In overtime, it was all Bulls. Rose started things off with an and one layup. Then Kirk Hinrich put in a three to give the Bulls a six point lead. Next it was Luol Deng’s turn, as he made a corner three to give the Bulls an eight point lead. Then Deng careened another corner three high off the rim and in to give the Bulls an 11 point lead. Hinrich and Thomas finished off the overtime with free throws.

The game started off looking bad for the Bulls, as Delonte West scored at ease over Ben Gordon to start off the game, putting in 6 early points, followed by 5 more on Kirk Hinrich. Unfortunately for the Cavs, late in the first, Delonte West fell and hit his head against the floor opening a laceration over his eyebrow. West also fractured his wrist on the fall.

The Cavaliers put their defensive focus around Ben Gordon, keeping him from getting any good looks at the basket. Gordon smartly deferred to his teammates, instead of forcing up a bunch of bad shots. Gordon finished with 5 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists.

Derrick Rose had a bad game as a whole, but was excellent in the late fourth quarter and overtime, making multiple clutch shots and free throws. It looked like Rose was going to let the Bulls down when he missed two free throws with the Bulls down 87 to 85. But Rose made two free throws to tie the game at 87 and bring the game into overtime. Rose scored the Bulls last 7 points of regulation. Rose finished the game with 16 points on 6-20 shooting and 6 assists. Rose came up during the clutch, and that’s all that matters.

Kirk Hinrich once again played excellent basketball. Hinrich hit a key three point shot in overtime and forced and won a jump-ball with Mo Williams. Hinrich finished the game with 12 points, 5 assists, and 2 steals. His impact is larger than what the box score shows. He brings a dimension to the Bulls that Derrick Rose has shockingly failed to bring. That is kick and drive basketball. The Bulls’ ball movement is greatly improved thanks to Hinrich’s kick and drive play. Hinrich also continued his stellar defense tonight. Hinrich also seems to be a leader on the court, making sure that the other players on the court do what they’re supposed to be doing.

It will be difficult for the Bulls to trade Hinrich given the amount of energy and leadership he has brought to the team. Trading Kirk Hinrich for an expiring contract no longer seems like the wisest trade, and instead, trading Hinrich should only be done if it gives us a big man that seriously improves our team.

Tyrus Thomas added in a real nice game, finsihing with 15 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Thomas’ help defense was key in shutting down Lebron tonight.

Luol Deng had a good game as well, scoring 22 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. He has scored well since Hinrich came back from injury, and played good defense on Lebron tonight.

Lebron James really struggled tonight. He scored 28 points, but it was on an inefficient 8-28 shooting. The Bulls forced James to turnover the ball eight times, including once on James’ infamous crab dribble.

Mo Williams lit Derrick Rose up for 26 points. This is to be expected, Derrick’s defense is still very poor.

Both Drew Gooden and Andres Nocioni scored 11 points for the Bulls.

This was just an all around good team win. The Bulls played good team basketball, moved the ball around well, and played good defense. Hopefully the Bulls can use this game as a launchpad for a good second half of the season.

This was the Bulls second win in a row. With this upset over the Cavaliers, the Bulls improve to 18-22 on the season.

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• Cleveland Cavaliers 117 vs. Chicago Bulls 92
• Chicago Bulls vs. Cleveland Cavaliers Recap
• Minnesota Timberwolves 109 vs. Chicago Bulls 108 OT
• Chicago Bulls at Cleveland Cavaliers Recap

Tags: Andres Nocioni, Ben Gordon, Bulls Mobile Alert, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, crab dribble, Delonte West, Derrick Rose, Drew Gooden, fractured wrist, Kirk Hinrich, laceration, Lebron James, Luol Deng, Mo Williams, Tyrus Thomas, upset

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 10:53 pm and is filed under Game Recap. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.